SAMHAIN PROJECT, SEASON 6: BACKROOMS

SEASON 6

 

Who'd have thunk that a photograph of a yellow empty office area of a building, construction in progress, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin would be the prompt for such freakiness?

Chiwetel Ejiofor leads a mind-bending flick as a dude who pretty much steps in turd soup with his life decisions.  He regrets this aspect of his personality as he engages in it.  A would-be architect, albeit one who deals in furniture, has perhaps decided to take his quasi-underachiever nature out on everyone else. 

Until the universe comes along. 

He discovers a sliver of light peering back at him from the wall of his sub-floor section in his furniture dealership.  

Once Ejiofor literally slips into the backroom, Backrooms never lets up.  His melting aloofness gives way to a sweaty, out of control obsession as a result.

An eternal confection of a banana colored, horribly fluorescent lit, shag carpeted galaxy is laid out before him. Albeit one with things in it.  Living and inanimate. As he works his way through the labyrinthine expanse of awful Joe Versus the Volcano workspace devoid of work, the film starts to.....

collapse in on itself?

In a good way, bro. 

It's up to you to decide what exactly is going on here.  The movie provides enough line to satisfactorily trip over for your own answers to the questions presented.  As I've said in an annoyingly disclaimerish fashion;  I don't mind ambiguous endings, I hate nonsensical.

Youngster director Kane Parsons has delivered neither.  I loved watching Chiwetel Ejifor and his psychiatrist, played with sharp disassociation by Reinate Reinsve, approach the blurriness of existence from two different angles.  

An amazing score here that seems like Goblin fell into a quasar dish with Tangerine Dream and Boards of Canada make this shit even more creepy than it would have been anyway.  And that's pretty creepy

Mark Duplass also pops up here to put an unraveling tie-up on things that gives the film's denouement all that is left that it needs. Because in Backrooms, it's better to be a door than a window.

THE SAMHAIN PROJECT, SEASON 6: WHEN THE "HALLOWEEN" THING STARTED

SEASON 6

There’s a handful of movies out there I’ve seen so many times that I can tell you what the next cut is going to bring or what the next line of dialogue will be throughout the entire picture. Those movies fall into a very short list and they include: 

Halloween 

The Warriors 

Jaws 

Star Wars 

Back to the Future

Silent Rage (hee hee)

….among a few others. 

The first time I saw Halloween and The Warriors was a Friday night.  It was October 31, 1980.  Two of my sisters, Randee and Dee, shared a Racine, WI apartment where they used the television that I have in this picture below as their source of entertainment.  I spent the evening with my sister, Randee, some popcorn, and a pair of movies.  Randee took me out for burgers before we headed back to her apartment.  I was excited as I could be in that moment, as a lot of people had been talking about this Halloween movie for a long time. 

They couldn’t pick up a whole lot with that television, but they did subscribe to HBO with it. 

Yes, folks, as I recall, they subscribed to Home Box Office with this tiny 9 inch television.  Or at the very least, one just like it.  It doesn’t matter; it worked, and especially on Halloween night, 1980.   Randee and I watched The Warriors, followed by Halloween, both first time viewings for me.  That slightly grainy black and white picture may have lent both films something they needed for me in that moment. 

Also, Randee and I watched this pair of movies before I went to sleep, and I had some pretty intense John Carpenter-induced nightmares to say the least. But I’ll never forget that night.  A cinema breakthrough moment for my beginning years as a movie buff. 

It’s interesting how the descriptions that my mom‘s friends had given to me that month in relation to Halloween didn’t measure up to what was on the screen in John Carpenter‘s film. The main focus of that night was of course, Halloween, but I got an extra glimpse at the work of what would become my second favorite filmmaker,  Walter Hill,  and his cult curiosity, The Warriors.  The latter being an unexpected gem that Randee talked up before we watched. 

The former marked my autumns for the rest of my life.

The image quality of 9 inches of black and white television matters not.  Both movies struck a permanent chord.

Talk about scores.  My mind welcomed both John Carpenter's and Barry DeVorzon's orchestrations for the films.  Such great stuff, and they were an inspirational cinematic sparking for my 9 year old mind.  They rattled around the rafters of my head for weeks. 

                                            

                                            

The HBO guide's image selection and description for Halloween, as well as The Warriors up above remain a core memory. 

SAMHAIN PROJECT, SEASON 6: CAST A DEADLY SPELL

 

SEASON 6

There was something special about the HBO Original film.  I'm talking about the old school ones from the early 80's to the mid 90's.  Films like Blackout, Flashpoint, & The Park is Mine.  They had fair-sized budgets, included name performers as well as directors.   Sometimes they would have a small theatrical release or be a foreign-market original, like Fortress, but they felt to me like something exclusive.  Only myself and other HBO subscribers had access.  In a matter of years, most of them would be largely forgotten.

Last night Frani and I watched the dust-covered Cast a Deadly Spell.  This one, unlike the others I mentioned, is being carried by the HBO Max streamer.  I guess you could call this one a horror-noir.  It has all the noir trappings.  A private investigator who drinks like a fish and smokes like a chimney.  He wanders around 1948 Los Angeles consorting with police force members, unseemly types of all shapes and sizes, and of course, femme fatales.  All the while, cracking wise with sharply written dialogue. 

The only difference is that in this version of 1948 L.A., magic is everywhere and being used by any and all.  Except our hero, Lovecraft, being played with spark by the late great Fred Ward.  Ward is great, and the rest of the cast is game as well, and they include David Warner, Clancy Brown, and Julianne Moore. 

Martin Campbell, who may have one of the most underrated of the film industry's longest resumes, is the director who does a nice job balancing the noirish atmosphere mixed with something the genre normally doesn't fraternize with: the supernatural.

Ghoulish beasties of other dimensions abound, and great practical effects bring those to life, as well as makeup work.  Despite the genre mashup, all of that doesn't seem to intrude.  The weird blend of fantasy elements and hard-boiled mystery seems to makes sense in some strange way,  Cast makes you wonder if Max Landis had seen this film before writing Bright a few years back. 

Overall, the film is entertaining, with a handful of laugh-out-loud moments.   It has just enough of the supernatural horror for your average Halloween movie aficionado to chalk up on the list for this time of year. 

I was a bit surprised that after several gory scenes of mayhem and murder, to see Clancy Brown's "goddamn" had clearly been overdubbed with a "goldurn".  I'd much rather a young impressionable viewer hear that rather mind profanity, than see some of the bloodshed that came before it. 

Overall, I'd recommend it.  Kind of like a Hocus Pocus for the Crime Story set. 

SAMHAIN PROJECT, SEASON 6: WITHIN THE PINES

SEASON 6

 

What a nifty little suspense thriller!

Our leading man, a sound recordist who is in the midst of a one way divorce heads out to the UK woods to record “ambience”.   Using his microphoned high tech recording device, he begins to follow sounds that perplex him. 

Nothing supernatural here, kids.  He walks into humanity at it worst.  Despite being a normal guy with normal problems, he does some greatness when confronted with a bitter slice of human nature, and an angry dose of mother nature. 

And you will admire his will. 

Brendan Cooney is terrific in a role that is all physical movement and emotional expression.  The lack of dialogue is a feature not a bug.  The woods does all the speaking here and the camera catches all its beauty, and its ugly ambivalence.  A chilling, yet sparse score adds to the tautness already unspooling on screen.  Which makes sense.  The composer had to come up with something to augment a project that relies so heavily upon audio that the sound designer is mentioned in the opening credits. 

Martin Cheney comes through in a major way.

A tight beautifully shot shocker, it will have you quietly hung on its lengthy imagery despite its compact 72 minute running time.  Right up to its stumble down the steps of a final shot.  If you like films that experiment with sound like Berberrian Sound Studio, the oft-harrowing Undertone, or Lorcan Finnegan's masterwork, Without Name, you'll like Within the Pines.

SAMHAIN PROJECT, SEASON 6: ALL HAIL THE POPCORN KING

 

SEASON 6

Frani and I have had a good fortune of seeing Joe R. Lansdale speak a couple of times. The Texas born, mojo champion genius horror/crime/drama storyteller has been doing it since the late 70s and doing it with edgy style and wicked panache. Hearing him speak just sealed the deal of how special he actually is. A hard-core old-school liberal, who himself is the basis for the character Hap in his long running Hap & Leonard series, he walks the walk.  Also a martial arts expert that teaches at a very high level in his hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas; he is to be feared.

 

That’s all spelled out here in All Hail the Popcorn King, a documentary by Hansi Oppenheimer that is as down-home as the author himself. A lot of footage is garnered from speaking conversationally, and on-the-go with Lansdale himself.  Voice interviews from many others, like Bruce Campbell, Joe Hill and more are here.  It’s heartwarming to hear his children and other family members speak of the loving personality that is Joe Lansdale as well. They’re not ego stroking, it’s all very earthy and real. 

I was a GoFundMe contributor to this film, full disclosure, but really that only added to my enjoyment of it. I felt a little pride at this little engine that could. At 55 minutes, I would’ve liked a little bit more time to spend with it, but overall it’s a heck of a piece of work and deserves to be placed at the top of the the list of docs on American writers.

SAMHAIN PROJECT, SEASON 6: NORTH AMERICAN CRYPTID MUSEUM

THE NORTH AMERICAN CRYPTID MUSEUM, PLANO,TX.

Ever since I saw the trailer for the movie Sasquatch, and saw the episode of In Search Of... that I documented here, I've been a believer.  In Bigfoot.  Many have considered me a doof for doing so, but I figure if they believe in demons and boogeymen, I'm safe in my faith in a mysterious woodland being that happens to be completely undocumented.  

The North American Cryptid Museum just happens to be in the town I live in, Plano TX.  Frani and I decided to check it out today, and it was actually pretty impressive.  Attached in the building that houses the popular haunted attraction known as Dark Hour, it was pretty easy to find as well.  The "Ranger" who was our tour guide was funny, wise, knowledgeable and came at the museum's displays from not just a lore angle, but a fairly scientific one as well.  I think The North American Cryptid Museum would be appreciated by followers of Loren Coleman as well as Sid & Marty Krofft. 

It's wide ranging and pretty comprehensive.  Examples of cryptids are in abundance and well-detailed.  Not just by the fantastic designs and craftsmanship executing them, but in the visual and written examples of corroboration.  There's not just news videos rolling alongside both the towering and tiny cryptids on display, but tons of written media documentation underlining the eyewitness accounts dating back in many cases to the 1800's or even earlier.  What's really cool is the examples of very familiar-to-me cryptids, like the Hodag, and the infamous Beast of Bray Road.  The latter of which's display has a nice shout-out to the late great journalist Linda Godfried, who wrote the preeminent text on

 the matter.

Our guide's anecdotes of encounters mixed nicely with matter-of-fact accounts were often funny as well as chilling.  He pointed out that Bigfoot has been witnessed in every state except Hawaii, and that every state has examples of a cryptid. License plates nicely accent the many examples, as well as displays that textualize details that are both informative and creepy.  Some language is nicely handled by covering words and names that may be culturally insensitive if shared aloud, and I respect the hell out of that.  There's depth here that I didn't expect, and once I found that the whole museum is really a "labour of love" by the Dark Hour owner, it wasn't hard to see why that angle was taken. 

This was a blast of a thing to do for so-called Spooky Season, but really, for everyone, this is something that can be taken in year round.  And with the constant updating and fun additions like the Seattle Raccoon sensation, Jimothy, it wouldn't be repetitive to pop back in more than once.  I highly recommend The North American Cryptid Museum, and not just for Bigfoot aficionados like myself, but the civilian as well. 

THE SAMHAIN PROJECT, SEASON 6: TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE

 

SEASON 6

I've written before about they syndicated 80's anthology series known as Tales from the Darkside.   It made it's way to the big screen in 1990 in the form of what Tom Savini said should have actually been Creepshow 3, and not this apparent bullschtein below.  I've not seen it.  Don't plan to. 

In Tales, there's great appearances by big names who weren't quite big yet.  Folks like Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater, and Julianne Moore, all game and turning in good work.  There are fun turns by Deborah Harry, David Johannsen, and Robert "I Can't Stop My Leg" Klein.  Great to see Klein here, as he's one of the comedians that I always forget was a centerpiece to me falling in love with standup in the early 80's.  In the latter segment, he plays James Remar's somewhat wishy-washy agent in the most compelling short of the three parts of this anthology. 

Lot 249 is interesting enough as Slater and Buscemi seem to alternate between being protagonist and antagonist.  Which are they in the long run?  I haven't decided yet.  Julianne Moore plays against what would be a sort of type for her in the future, and pulls it off nicely.  I love a good Mummy story, and this one's pretty solid, and very gruesome. 

 It is easy to forget how good Christian Slater's early career was.  From Gleaming the Cube to Pump Up the Volume, to Kuffs.  I still look back on those flicks every once in a while.  It's neat to see a young pre-Reservoir Dogs Buscemi here.  His role here is so different from the thuggery he displayed later, or the goofiness he put out to the world in multiple Adam Sandler movies.  Let's not forget the man directed the oft-forgotten and sadly under-appreciated Trees Lounge. 

The George Romero scripted Stephen King segment, The Cat From Hell is pretty slick.  It brings us one shitheel who turns to another for removal of a revenge-minded feline.  It's darker and funnier than it sounds. I mentioned to Frani during last night's viewing that David Johannsen is pretty amazing.  Not just here, but overall.  To go from the lead singer of The New York Dolls, to Buster Poindexter, to great bombastic performances like the cab-driver ghost in Scrooged, to his pro-style hitter here, is pretty telling of his talent.  I have his solo debut on vinyl, and its one of my favorite records.  

The last segment may be the best.  It's certainly the most compelling, moving and thought-provoking. Personal favorite James Remar plays a bit against his tough-guy type.  His sad-eyed performance as a down-on-his-luck visual artist dealing with the worst and the best night of his life is as intense as the evening in question itself.  Its a night that creates decisions for our hero, as his life is swept up both by a dark supernatural being, and by Rae Dawn Chong.  

Tales has great effects work by the now legendary KNB effects group, in concert with FX hero Dick Smith.  From cringe-inducing gore work to creepy monstrosities, their skills run the gamut, and really, this movie itself is a great audition tape for practical effects work. 

The film has a lot of fun, a little grue, and a heaping helping of the authorship of Michael McDowell, George Romero, and Stephen King.  Director and George Romero vet John Harrison moves it along efficiently and ties the whole package together with a nasty little bow that is the Hansel and Gretel wrap-around story. 

This is the epitome of Halloween viewing, and I think despite the names involved, it is an underrated example.